Written by Derek Kessler on
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
The massive wildfires that have been scorching southern California has been imaged by NASA satellites, and the results are both breathtaking and disturbing. The fires have burned more than 600 square miles - an area larger than all of New York City. The fires thus far have killed one person and destroyed more than 1300 homes. The largest evacuation in the history of California has been prompted, with an estimated one million people having already fled their homes.
Southern California has been declared a federal disaster zone.
The fires are not expected to die down in the next day, with powerful windgusts up to 100 mph coming down off the mountains to the east. Because the winds are whipping the flames over great distances, the firefighters have been unable to combat the flames and have been forced to work on preventing new fires from flaring up from flying embers.
The below image shows the smoke billowing from the fires as seen from orbit yesterday. The fires are marked in red. Click on it for a larger view.
The massive wildfires that have been scorching southern California has been imaged by NASA satellites, and the results are both breathtaking and disturbing. The fires have burned more than 600 square miles - an area larger than all of New York City. The fires thus far have killed one person and destroyed more than 1300 homes. The largest evacuation in the history of California has been prompted, with an estimated one million people having already fled their homes.
